Mooring fees could drop in Newport harbor, but not by half

The Newport Beach City Council took a step forward Tuesday evening to reduce fees related to harbor moorings.

The proposed rate decrease comes on the heels of roughly two months of public meetings hosted by the Harbor Commission, where topics such as cost, transfer rules and other mooring issues were robustly discussed between officials and mooring holders.

The Harbor Commission recommended the council reduce the city’s annual permit fee for offshore moorings by half from $55.43 per foot of a boat to $25 per foot. However, after two hours of discussion the council voted unanimously to direct staff to craft a resolution that would reduce the fee to $35 per foot of a boat.

Onshore mooring fees would also be reduced from $27.71 per foot of a boat to $12.50 per foot, under the commission’s proposal.

In February, the City Council cut the cost of residential pier fees throughout the city and tasked the Harbor Commission with assessing the cost of harbor moorings as well. Mooring holders had hoped the conversation would result in a fee reduction that would put their costs on par with those of residential pier owners.

Mayor Pro Tem Diane Dixon said that of the commercial and residential pier rates and mooring costs, the “mooring owners share of the basket is highly disproportionate to what it should be.”

“I do not believe we should increase fees on the shoulders of the mooring holders,” she said.

The rate change would result in a roughly $1 million reduction to the city’s Tidelands Fund, which pays for capital improvement projects inside the harbor, according to city staff.

The council must vote on the resolution at a future meeting before fees can be formally reduced.

In a controversial vote in 2010, the council decided to nearly triple the cost of mooring fees, which had not been increased since 1996. The move came three years after an Orange County Grand Jury investigation determined that the city was allegedly mismanaging the mooring process and that moorings on public tidelands weren’t readily available to the public under the city system.

Among the specific findings, the grand jury said the city hadn’t assessed the moorings’ fair market value since the mid-1990s.

At that time, the council voted to peg moorings at 14% of the average Newport marina rent, which raised the fee from about $20 per foot of a boat to about $55 per foot. That increased the monthly mooring cost for a 40-foot boat from about $64 to more than $180.

“If the mooring fees continue to go up, I will be priced out of Newport Beach and will have to go somewhere else,” said Denise Peterson, who has had a mooring in the harbor for 14 years.

Mooring holders pointed to a lack of amenities in Newport Harbor as compared to harbors in other cities. Yet, the rates for mooring permits are nearly three times the rate of other harbors, said Newport Mooring Assn. member Patricia Newton.

“Over-market mooring fees are not an appropriate solution for harbor budget concerns,” she said.

As part of its proposal, the Harbor Commission recommended that in addition to the rate reduction, the council should also allow unlimited transfers with the maximum of one mooring transfer per year. The cost would be 10% of the sale price for the mooring, the council indicated Tuesday.

No fee would be charged for a transfer to a family member.

It was also suggested that the wait list, which the city has used for decades to transfer moorings from one holder to another, be abolished. Since mooring holders were previously able to independently sell their space, moorings were rarely turned over to the city, meaning people on the wait list would wait for decades for a mooring.

“The wait list simply does not work if people are going to be buying and selling permits,” said Harbor Commission Chair Brad Avery. “The wait list just does not move. It gives people false hope.”